This invention relates to a battery pack adapter particularly to enable a battery pack designed for use on one brand of video camera to be used on another brand of video camera. There are many brands of video cameras on the market, such as SONY, JVC or Panasonic brands and each individual manufacturer makes a somewhat different design of camera. Except that video tapes in general use (for example VS, VHS-C, etc.) have common specifications, the other components or parts of the respective camera systems differ from one another especially insofar as the loading and plugging structure for the camera battery pack are concerned, and each manufacturer has its own specifications for the battery pack.
For example, FIG. 1 shows a SONY brand of camera A and associated battery pack B. The back face of the camera defines a battery pack seat which, towards its base is provided with two projecting conductive rods Al adjacent to each other. Beside the rods is a retractable catch A2 operated by a push button A4, while the top and bottom edges of the battery seat are respectively equipped with fixed catches A3. Correspondingly, the front surface of the battery pack B has conductive terminals B1 for making electrical connection with the rods Al, an adjacent reception aperture B2 for the catch A2 and female plug-in connections B3 at the top and bottom for the catches A3 for attachment and release of the battery pack by a bayonet type of interaction of catches A3 and B3. The catch A2 is retracted by means of the button A4 and when the button A4 is released, catch A2 engages in aperture B2 to lock the battery pack in place. To remove the battery pack, it is necessary to retract catch A2.
FIG. 2 shows a Panasonic camera C and battery pack D. The back of the Panasonic camera is again formed as a seat for the battery pack and has two pairs of spaced conductive rods Cl adapted to engage terminals D1 in the battery pack. Spaced upwardly from the rods Cl is a retractable catch C2 operated by a push button C4. Again, the camera is provided with upper and lower fixed catches C3 and the battery pack has corresponding bayonet type receiving formations D3. It will be understood that the battery pack is attached to and removed from the camera in like manner to the SONY battery pack previously described but the location, and spacing of the various catches, rods, and terminals is different for the two systems. Accordingly, the SONY battery pack cannot be used on the Panasonic camera and likewise the Panasonic battery pack cannot be used on the SONY camera.
Moreover, since the different brands of battery packs have different specifications, there are also dissimilar battery chargers for the different cameras. Thus, should a user purchase the wrong type of charger he cannot use it on a particular camera and if the user has two or more different kinds of cameras, different battery chargers are required.